The joke is on

WE CAN rage all we want against liars and plunderers that are running for office but I am afraid election’s cruel joke is on again. I hope to be proven wrong but because our electoral system remains unchanged and no substantive effort is being made to up voter political maturity a notch, my fearless forecast is that as usual moneyed candidates will win.

At a media forum, I was like emotionally throwing up at the sweet nothings candidates were dishing out. Sweet because the promises were what the audience loved to hear. Sweet also because they came from a singular motive to get votes. (Only Raffy Alunan dared bring up the relevant and to-the-point issue of Mindanaoanons’approval of Martial Law in their region. For this he was booed.)

And nothings because none of the promises is assured of fulfillment. The promises were all dreams of individual candidates and not party-backed programs. Once in office the promiser still has to win so many other legislators over to her/ his dream. And failure to get their support, if she/ he even tries, will only be a most welcome excuse to toss the dream. After all it has already served its purpose of getting her/him the win votes.

Nothing has changed. Like we should have a law forbidding anybody with a pending case in court to be a candidate for any office. But how can we have such a law when our lawmakers are the same people who run and win in spite of arraignment or sometimes even of conviction in court.

We have a law limiting campaign expenses yet everybody knows this has never been implemented. Because it is mutually beneficial, both media and candidate collaborate to find loopholes in the law. Besides, how do you monitor, much less prevent, how much is spent for food and transportation of voters and for direct purchase of votes.

We need the system overhauled but it is no surprise why nothing is done about it. As it is we have a system that only angels can implement democratically. But there are no angels in Comelec or anywhere, hence the system remains rigged in favor of wealthy candidates.

Ours is an elite democracy, an oxymoron because rule by the elite is the opposite of rule by the majority even in a representative democracy. It is a “democracy” only because the poor and middle class majority “elect” the elites. But experience has shown that policies crafted by elite representatives always redound to the latter’s exclusive benefit.

The problem we have, therefore, that remains unsolved is how to curtail the decision-making power of the elite. Until such time that we go beyond raging and work to democratize our electoral system, elite representatives will continue to play a cruel joke on us during and after elections.